Dear Family,

Thanks to everyone for the Birthday love.  And a special happy Birthday goes out to David as well.  I have good news that I wasn't expecting. As my old companion Joped (went home) two weeks early, the assistants set up a mini-mission for one of the 19-year-olds in our Branch. His nickname is Jay but now he is Elder Typagone, my new two week companion. What a great opportunity it is for him to prepare for his mission and get ahead of the game. And what a good opportunity it is for me to work to my hearts extent and help my own area to progress onward.  I feel full of energy and desire to get the work going here.

 

Also, Elder Volk was released as a Branch President yesterday. Now there are only 2 Missionary Branch Presidents in the whole mission. That is a big land mark as to the progression of Thailand. In two moves just as I return home the mission will be welcoming 14 new Thai missionaries. And if my current companion gets his papers in soon then there is a possibility that he could join in the ranks of that group as well.  Because of the reduction in missionaries there are only 50 companionships in Thailand right now. With all the new Thai missionaries comming in that means that almost every companionship could have a Thai companion.

 

Tonight we will travel over to Bangkok for another zone leader council meeting.  Elder Young, who is the current Assistant to the President, and I had a good time switching off in Sisaket. He and I will be the only two people from our group who aren't Joping early. He and Elder Bryant have prepared a Zone Leader Council meeting about teaching families.

 

I am still doing great. I feel good. I'm excited about my new companion. I really enjoyed training Elder Tom. It will be fun to train Elder Typagone too.  On my birthday we took part in a very successful Fireside... although firesides aren't all that great for missionary work, but this one really got the members thinking about their lives and truly helped them to obtain an Eternal Perspective.  Some of the evidence of the results of the fireside were manifest as the members bore their sincere testimony during sacrament meeting.  The members supprised me with a birthday cake during our correlation meeting, which we promptly consumed. Now that today is preperation day i'll be sure to eat something sweet.  Some of the missionaries in my zone informed me that they celebrated my birthday by going to an icecream parlor for lunch.  I told them thanks. :p

 

It feels good to work hard and get the blessings of that hard work. There's not much else that feels so satisfying. Keep working hard at home. That'd be a good birthday gift. And eat something sweet. You know I would.

 

With 76 tons of Love,

 

Elder Lilly

pizza

Dear Family,

 

Hello Hello Hello. Well, this Saturday is indeed my birthday. I was reminded that my birthday was comming up during Zone Conference when they were announcing birthdays and... Woah hey that's my name their announcing.  Oh yeah, my birthday is coming up soon.  Now I'm making it a big deal in the whole zone so that we can celebrate seperatly together. In the same day we have set up a fireside at the church about the Atonement. I'm way excited for the fireside. We are asking everyone to come to the church in their sunday dress. I feel like the planning was done under the influence of the Spirit. Therefore am I confident about the success of the activity. Our purpose is to increase their Faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement.

 

This week was full of chaos in the Thai Government. The battle between the Red shirts and Yellow shirts has slowly started affecting us more and more. For the last couple of days we've been stuck in a country wide curfew. At first the curfew was at 8:00 but now it's at 9:00. The Red shirts have gone around burning the towncenters in each of the provinces. They havn't been able to burn the Town Center in Sisaket. The police have the place very well locked down with barbed wire and policemen everywhere.  We aren't affected too bad by it though. It's safe for us so long as we avoid that little section of the town. It seems to be an ongoing ordeal off and on off and on. It will be interesting to see how it progresses further.  These are the signs of our times.

 

Yesterday we went to another Buddhist funeral.  A huge storm broke out and it started flooding in the area that we were in. Then we had a blackout. I thought it made sort of a cool grim effect on the funeral. The rain was pretty loud though. We all escaped from the rain and lit candles inside the house. I was fortunate enough to be able to sit down next to several of the priesthood holders in the Church and talk to them about various things. One of the interesting concerns that they brought up was about how we can show love for those people that we visit, more esspecially those who we don't know very well or those who havn't come to church in a long time. "Clearly we don't need to tell them that they are missing church. They already know that. But what can we do to help them come back? When we invite them they don't listen" they asked me.  The answer I gave them stemmed back from something that I had read in general conference which I think I shared with you guys last week. The best way that we can help people to repent is to increase their faith in the Gospel.  Our faith increases when the spirit confirms the truths to our hearts. The members had been inviting people to come back to church but they hadn't been teaching those people to increase their faith in Jesus Christ and His Gospel. So nothing changed. I am glad to have an increased understanding of the importance of the gospel in teaching.

 

I love you all and thank you for your prayers,

 

Love Elder lilly

from Jennifer

Dear Family,

 

Today was a fun day. We played basketball, soccer, and ping pong at the church in Ubon. I really enjoyed playing basketball. It's been quite some time since I've played. Tomorrow is zone conference. We will speak about setting Visions, making goals, and planning.  I'm excited to have another opportunity to invite the Spirit and rely on the Lord for help in inspiring our zone. 

 

So, my companion has been having some personal health issues which has been an obstacle for us in our work together.  He will return home from his mission on the 28th of this month. That means that I will be in another three man team, and get two new companions. Right now I'm balancing helping my companion, working in my area, and helping out the zone.  It's been quite the learning experience.  There are so many valuable experiences to be gained from serving a mission.  One of the youth in our branch who had been deciding if he were to go on a mission or not had received a confirmation from the spirit and bore his testimony about how he knows that a mission is the best university that he could enter.  I agree.  It's so good.

 

Last Sunday Ahm passed his interview. He's moving to Prea before next Sunday. He'll have to get baptized in Lampang. I don't have any worries about him. I feel like he is the most firm investigator in the faith and truth of the Gospel that I have ever taught before. To me he gets it. There is so much power in the simplicity and truth of the Gospel.  It's what we need to accomplish in life. Some of the teachers at church don't quite understand the Gospel and their role as teachers in inviting the people that they teach to improve their lives. Some people still simply teach the lesson material without any goal or conscious effort to explain the Gospel truths and invite the people to change, which without that the lesson is lacking in focus and power. But with a commitment in mind which will help the learner repent and come unto Christ then the lesson becomes focused and it gains personal relevance and meaning.  

 

The scar from the 2  by 4 is pretty much all healed up.

 

As far as the Trek is concerned... I remember a powerful closing talk from President Thornock. I remember feeling the spirit extra strong as I served and studied in a peaceful and serene place. I remember walking for hours and eating soggy delicious rolls. I remember a lot. Overall it was definitely a worthwhile experience, especially if you go in with the attitude to serve and learn.

 

I love you guys sooo much. It was way good to talk to you on the Phone. Sorry I had to cut it short... I had a lot of things that I needed to accomplish.

 

Love,

-Elder Lilly

Testimony

Dear Family,

 

Wow, Jeremy is home already. That's great! I'm sure he'll mention how fast the time has gone by. That's a great mothers day present. 

 

Thanks for the stories about our ancestors. I had someone ask me about my Ancestors yesterday. I told her that my parents were about to send that to me.

 

So another moves has passed by. There are now 7 Thai missionaries in my zone. Elder Pituporn stayed here in Srisaket and he is on his last moves. That means that I am more than likely to stay here in Srisaket for the next moves period--but you never know. Elder Milton moved to the office and we welcomed Elder Hood into our District.

 

Last Saturday Ahm interviewed for Baptism. He is way ready to get Baptized but he will need to interview with one of the President's counselors first.  He shared his personal Testimony with us as we prepared him for the interview. It's such an awesome experience to see him get a Testimony and then progress so fast. It's a feeling that's hard to describe but it's a good feeling. And I get excited considering how when we remain faithful until the end we will see each other again with glorified and perfected bodies in the realms of God's kingdom.

 

We met a strange man a few days ago at the church. He wanted us to teach him but when we sat down he seemed to want to teach us his doctrine more than listen to us. When he spoke he would go on in speaking things that made no sense and wouldn't ever directly answer our questions. So we asked the Branch President to speak with him. Afterwards he seemed a bit angry but he left the church and we havn't seen him since. Meeting him was a stark contrast to hearing the open, joyful, and personal testimony of Ahm and also the members testimonies that we heard on Monday.

 

Elder Pituporn and I are doing well. I always enjoy setting up the vision for our area/zone. As part of being a Zone Leader we get the opportunity to teach one of the District Meeting lessons in each of the districs that are in our zone. President Smith would like the zone leaders to do whatever it takes to help the zone to progress. Some of our options are switching off for 1 day or 3 days or a week or whatever we need to do. I like having a lot of options. I've seen how one person can have a tremendous impact on those who are around him.

 

I suppose I should mention that last week we took part in a service project where we helped destroy the remains of one of the members houses that burned down. It was good fun. Unfortunetely we didn't have much for tools. Rather we used 2 by 4's to take down the burned remains. As I was weilding a 2 by 4 I hit a cealing board above my target which caused the board to reverberate and it hit me in the face. Ouch. I recall Michael once got hit by a 2 by 4. But, no worries. It was a small scratch. And it's basically all healed up by now. In the end we cleared the house and did a great service to the family in the Branch. Their Neighbors were wondering why they hired foreigners to help take down the remains of the house. :) They were able to explain that we were missionares.

 

I love you guys and I'll talk to you on Monday.

 

 

Love,

 

Elder Lilly