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

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

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

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

Photos from a Baptism and a Service Project

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

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

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

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

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